UCLA’s Coaching Staff is Finalized as Dana Bible is Hired as QB Coach

UCLA released the following press release today:

For Immediate Release – Jan. 23, 2018

UCLA Football Announces Coaching Staff

UCLA head football coach Chip Kelly recently finalized his coaching staff and their assignments for the 2018 season.

Dana Bible joins the UCLA staff as quarterbacks coach after a career which has included stints as an offensive coordinator at both the NFL and collegiate levels. He has coached such current NFL quarterbacks as Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan and Mike Glennon.

Roy Manning will serve as the Bruins’ outside linebackers coach and special teams coach. He comes to UCLA after a three-year stint at Washington State as outside linebackers coach. Last year, the Cougars owned one of the highest-ranking defenses in the Pac-12. Manning, a former player at the University of Michigan who played in the NFL for three seasons, also has coaching experience at his alma mater and the University of Cincinnati.

Vince Oghobaase (oh-guh-BAH-see) has been named defensive line coach. He joins the Bruin staff after working the previous two seasons in the NFL as the San Francisco 49ers’ assistant defensive line coach. Oghobaase played collegiately at Duke University and finished his career ranked among the top 10 at the school in both sacks and tackles for loss.

Returning to UCLA for the 2018 campaign are wide receivers coach Jimmie Dougherty, running backs coach DeShaun Foster, offensive line coach Hank Fraley and Angus McClure, who returns to coaching the tight end position.

In his first season with the Bruins, Dougherty’s receiving group helped establish a new school record for most passing yards in a season (4,478 yards), a total which ranked second in the Pac-12.

In 2017, Foster’s Bruin running backs upped their rushing average per carry by almost a yard per attempt. Rushing yardage, rushing touchdowns and rushing first downs all went up for the Bruins. UCLA ranked third in the conference in total offense. The top four running backs each produced career-high rushing totals during the season and generated new highs for receptions.

Coach Fraley’s offensive line group improved its rushing output by almost a full yard per carry from 2016 totals. Rushing yardage, rushing touchdowns and rushing first downs all moved in a positive direction for the Bruins.

McClure, who has more than 20 years of coaching experience, will return to the staff for a 12th season. In 2012, he began coaching the defensive line, having previously worked with tight ends, offensive line and special teams since arriving in Westwood in 2007. McClure will once again coach the tight ends in 2018. As defensive line coach, McClure has seen one of his linemen selected in eight of the past 10 NFL drafts, including five straight years. Also of note is the fact that a Bruin defensive lineman has been chosen in the first round in three of the last five drafts.

Coach Kelly previously had announced the hiring of Jerry Azzinaro as the defensive coordinator, Don Pellum as inside linebackers coach and Paul Rhoads as defensive backs coach.

The Bruins are scheduled to open the 2018 season on September 1st in the Rose Bowl against Cincinnati. That is the first of seven home contests, including dates in Pasadena against nationally-ranked teams from Washington (Oct. 6), USC (Nov. 17) and Stanford (Nov. 24). For season ticket information, please visit uclabruins.com/tickets.

If you’ve been following along with the updates on the coaching staff, this shouldn’t be news to you. Most of those names had been rumored and reported on for a few weeks now, with Azzinaro, Pellum, and Rhoads being officially hired back in December. The only real news with this release is the official announcement that Dana Bible will take over as QB coach.

Since he is the new coach here, let’s focus on Dana Bible really quickly. Bible has been coaching since 1976, and has overall been coaching for 35 years, mostly in college as a QB/OC at a variety of spots. As the press release noted, he has coached current NFL QBs Matt Ryan and Russell Wilson at separate stints at Boston College and North Carolina State. He also has West Coast experience, having served as Stanford’s OC/QB coach from 1995-1997, and at San Diego State as the OC/QB/WR coach from 1986-1988.

One interesting note is that the press release states that Bible will be the Quarterbacks coach for the Bruins. That’s not surprising - the assumption since Chip Kelly’s arrival was that he would retain playcalling duties on offense, and that an offensive coordinator title would be simply a title. To that end, it’s nice to be able to get a coach as respected as Bible, known as a great QB coach. It also helps that Kelly and Bible are intimately familiar with each other - despite never coaching together until 2016, the two are good friends and routinely bounced ideas off each other. This article from Philly.com mentioned one occasion where Kelly and Bible spent a day at Disneyland just talking football and not riding anything. Maybe another Disneyland trip is in the pair’s future?

Also, as morose as it may be, we do need to talk about Dana Bible’s health. In 2009 Bible was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia. He continued to coach after the diagnosis, only leaving NC State in 2012 when they brought a new coaching staff is, having been made interim HC right before the season ended. He stayed out of coaching for a few years before popping up again on Chip Kelly’s San Francisco staff as an Offensive Analyst. I think, considering Bible’s recent health history and his age, that there is a question of how long Bible will be on staff, but I believe that’s where the hiring of Jerry Neuheisel comes into play, as he can be groomed to take over the position in a few years.

In either case, with this announcement, Chip Kelly’s first staff at UCLA is officially set. There’s a mix of old and new faces, young and old, and there’s a lot to feel excited about. We’ll have a breakdown of the full staff later this week.

Go Bruins!